se seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats,
barley, corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the
vast order known as the grass family. They are used for food both in the
unground state and in various forms of mill products.

The grains are pre-eminently nutritious, and when well prepared, easily
digested foods. In composition they are all similar, but variations in
their constituent elements and the relative amounts of these various
elements, give them different degrees of alimentary value. They each
contain one or more of the nitrogenous elements,--gluten, albumen,
caseine, and fibrin,--together with starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty
matter, and also mineral elements and woody matter, or cellulose. The
combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly three times that
of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the food
elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system,
grains approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods;
indeed, wheat contains exactly the correct proportion of the food
elements.

Being thus in themselves so nearly perfect foods, and when properly
prepared, exceedingly palatable and easy of digestion, it is a matter of
surprise that they are not more generally used; yet scarcely one family
in fifty makes any use of the grains, save in the form of flour, or an
occasional dish of rice or oatmeal. This use of grains is far too meager
to adequately represent their value as an article of diet. Variety in
the use of grains is as necessary as in the use of other food material,
and the numerous grain preparations now to be found in market render it
quite possible to make this class of foods a staple article of diet, if
so desired, without their becoming at all monotonous.

In olden times the grains were largely depended upon as a staple food,
and it is a fact well authenticated by history that the highest
condition of man has always been associated with wheat-consuming
nations. The ancient Spartans, whose powers of endurance are proverbial,
were fed on a grain diet, and the Roman soldiers who under Caesar
conquered the world, carried each a bag of parched grain in his pocket
as his daily ration.

Other nationalities at the present time make extensive use of the
various grains. Rice used in connection with some of the leguminous
seeds, forms the staple article of diet for a large proportion of the
human race. Rice, unlike the other grain